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NVIDIA’s Tegra to Focus on Superphones and Automotive Markets, Not Mainstream Budget Phones

Thanks in part to a somewhat unsuccessful year for the Tegra 4 in 2013, NVIDIA is re-gearing its focus for their line of smartphone processors. As stated by the company’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang during NVIDIA’s quarterly earnings call, “Our non-focus is mainstream (budget) phones.”

With lower returns in the budget phone market, NVIDIA will not look to compete against other silicon manufacturers such as Rockchip and MediaTek; two companies which have established a dominance in that area. Not only do those two companies already have established marketshare, but Qualcomm has also announced new emphasis on the budget phone market.

According to NVIDIA’s CFO Colette Kress, “The year-over-year decrease in our Tegra processor business was largely due to higher sales volume of Tegra 3 for smartphone and tablet devices in the prior year, compared with current volumes of Tegra 4.”

With the new Tegra K1 and its GPU with 192 graphics cores, NVIDIA will primarily target “superphones” and high-end devices with large displays. In addition to phones, you can look for Tegra to be placed inside automobiles, powering infotainment systems for drivers as well as passengers in the backseat. NVIDIA has already stated back when they announced the Tegra K1 that consumers should expect to hear announcements for devices featuring the new chip in the second half of this year.

There is no denying that the Tegra K1 is a feat of processor engineering, but what the company actually needs are OEM partner devices to put the chip inside. If you can’t buy the chip, then it won’t matter how fast or powerful it is.

Here’s hoping NVIDIA has better luck this year with the K1 than they did with the Tegra 4.

I’m glad they’re targeting performance. I’m hoping NVIDIA puts more effort in open source Linux drivers. At least, with the K1, the GPU uses the same architecture and likely the same universal proprietary drivers as their desktop/notebook GPUs. Their Linux desktop drivers may be closed but at least they update them for newer kernels. I have a 6 year old NVIDIA GPU that still gets driver updates. Can’t really say the same for any other ARM vendor. I hope NVIDIA plans on doing the same with the K1 if they go the proprietary route.

Anyway, as for performance, I’m hoping to see some Tegra K1 (or future iterations) micro-boards where I can easily install any Linux distro I want for a nice tiny, fanless and snappy desktop PC.

Mark2134

lol

JoshGroff

I remember back when most ads on here were geared towards technology and worth clicking…

Mark2134

It’s the strangest ad placement. Every time that one comes up below a post I laugh.

Aaron

Are you allowed to mock advertisers?

Mark2134

I wouldn’t say I’m mocking them. Lol if anything it caught my attention like a good ad should

Aaron

I went to their site just to see. Couldn’t even see what they are selling without watching the video, so said nevermind.

Adrynalyne

What would they say?

omg, you mocked us, I will no longer allow you to make us money!

michael arazan

Let me guess, this must of been a boner pill advertisement.

The only thing it was missing was oily discharge

The Narrator

At first i was against Tegra. But after the K1, bring it on. Qualcomm is taking too long with the 805.

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

Qualcomm has their normal time frame for chip updates. 800 s not even a year old in it’s first device.

The Narrator

It’s all about beating everyone to the punch.

MettaWorldTroll

I’ll take a K1 64-bit phone over anything Qualcomm any day.

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

More Qualcomm please. Matter of fact OEMS have been largely ignoring Tegra for high end devices. Even all the rumored devices so far for this year is all Qualcomm.

The Narrator

They (Nvidia) need to find a way to integrate LTE. I believe that’s the main problem.

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

That’s STILL an issue?

The Narrator

Tegra 4 is optional, Tegra 4i is integrated. I’d assume it’s still a problem with only 1 processor with integrated.

Adrynalyne

It shouldn’t be. Samsung claimed the same problem with Exynos, yet they had no trouble adding on an CDMA/LTE radio for the Note 2.

The Narrator

Must be Nvidia being lazy. I read earlier that AT&T and Vodafone and other unlisted carriers certified the K1. Could be good news.

Grahaman27

The certified the i500 (k1 compatible) modem which is a spectacular modem with one major drawback…. No CDMA support.

staticx57

More Tegra versus Qualcomm please. Competition is good.

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

Competition is good. But there really isn’t any at the moment. Next flagship phones for the next year Htc and S5 are already rumored for Snapdragons, literally no one is using Tergras and if Samsung doesn’t do Snapdragon they’ll be doing their own chips.

Fry

Super phone might be the first phone to fail “will it blend”

The Narrator

Or the “can it play crysis” test. Haha

Jim890

Bring it on!

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